Zayn Malik’s Departure Reportedly Cost One Direction Nearly $15 Million
It looks like Zayn Malik's departure cost One Direction more than just the hopes and dreams of Directioners. The band reportedly forfeited a huge payday since they're down to four members.
The Province reports that the remaining members of 1D will lose a £10 million ($14.78 million) payday that required all five members to fulfill their record contract.
"There's a massive loyalty bonus for each member if they fulfill their record deal," an insider told the Province. "But Zayn didn't even want the money. All he ever wanted was to buy his mum a house — and he's done that — so there was no incentive for him to finish the tour, let alone make a fifth album only to spend another six months on the road."
While $14.78 million (which would have averaged out to $2,956,000 for each of the five singers) sounds like a crazy amount of money to us, chances are it's just a drop in the bucket for One Direction. After all, in 2014 Forbes estimated the band's net worth to be a cool $75 million. Of the five group members, the Mirror reports that Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson earn the most money, due to the fact that they have a hand in writing many of 1D's songs.
Financial penalty aside, we imagine this is a hard time for the remaining members of One Direction. Liam Payne acknowledged the difficulty in an open letter to fans, in which he wrote, "It’s sad to think for the time being we won’t grace the stage as five bros or have the same fun on a tour bus or laughs in a hotel together that we have over the years but I’m super sure us and zayn will always remain the closest friends."
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